Abstract
Despite the reliance of cooperative applications on the facilities provided by distributed systems, little consideration is given by these systems to the support of cooperative work. This paper examines the provision of appropriate mechanisms to represent cooperative work within a distributed platform. Based upon a examination of existing models of cooperative activity and the experiences of their use, a lightweight model of activities is suggested as the basis for the supporting platform. Rather than concentrate on the exchange of information, this lightweight model focus on the mechanisms for sharing of objects. This focus enables a clear separation between the mechanisms provided by the distributed platform and the policy which is the responsibility of the cooperative applications.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ANSA (1989):ANSA: An Engineer's Introduction to the Archietcture, Release TR.03.03, Projects Management Limited, Poseidon House, Castle Park, Cambridge, CB3 ORD UK. November.
Bannon, L and Schmidt, K. (1992): Taking CSCW seriously.Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). An international Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, Oct.
Birman, K. and Marzullo, K. (1989):ISIS and the MET A project. Sun Technology, Summer, pp. 90–104.
Danielson, T. and Pankoke-Babatz, U. (1988): The Amigo Activity Model InResearch into Networks and Distributed Applications, ed. R. Speth. Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., North Holland, pp. 227–241.
Dollimore, J. and Wilbur, S. (1991). Experiences in Building a Configurable CSCW System. In eds.Studies in Computer Support Cooperative Work. J.M. Bowers and S.D. Benford: Elsevier Science Publishers B. V, North Holland, pp. 173–181.
Gibbs S.J. (1989): LIZA: An extensible groupware toolkit. InProceedings of the SIGCHI Human Factors in Computing Systems. Austin, Texas: ACM Press, pp. 29–35.
Ishii, H. and Ohkubo, M. (1991): Message Driven Groupware Design Based on an Office Procedure Model, OM-1.Journal of Information Processing, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 184–191.
Kaplan, S.M., Tolone, W.J., Bogia. D.P. and Bignolim C. (1992): Flexible, Active Support for Collaborative Work with Conversation Builder. InProceedings on the conference for CSCW' '92, Toronto, Canada, 1992, pp. 378–385.
Knister, M.J. and Prakash, A. (1990): DistEdit: A distributed toolkit for supporting multiple group editors. InProceedings of the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work October 7–10, Los Angeles, California, 1990, ACM Press, pp. 000-000.
Kreifelts, T., Licht, U., Seuffert, P. and Woetzel, G. (1994): Domino: A system for the specification and automation of cooperative office processes. InEUROMICRO., 1984, pp. 33–41.
Kreifelts, T., Pankoke-Babatz, U. and Victor, F. (1991): A Model for the Coordination of Cooperative Activities. InProceedings of the International Workshop on CSCW, Berlin, 1991, pp. 85–100.
Kreifelts, T. and Woetzel, W. (1987): Distribution and Handling in an Office Procedure System. In eds.Office Systems: Methods and Tools. D. Tsichritzis and G. Bracchi. Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., North-Holland, pp. 197–209.
Lochovsky, F.H., Hogg, J.S., Weiser, S.P. and Mendelzon, A.O. (1988): OTM: Specifying Office Tasks. InACM Proceedings on the Conference on Office Information Systems, Palo Alto, CA, 1988, pp. 46–54.
Kreifelts, T. and Woetzel, W. (1987): Distribution and Handling in an Office Procedure System. In eds.Office Systems: Methods and Tools. D. Tsichritzis and G. Bracchi. Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., North-Holland, pp. 197–209.
Lochovsky, F.H., Hogg, J.S., Weiser, S.P. and Mendelzon, A.O. (1988): OTM: Specifying Office Tasks. InACM Proceedings on the Conference on Office Information Systems, Palo Alto, CA, 1988, pp. 46–54.
Lövstrand, L. (1991): Being selectively aware with the Khronika System. In eds.ECSCW '91. Proceedings of the Second European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, L. Bannon, M. Robinson and K. Schmidt, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 265–279.
Malone, T.W., Grant, K.R., Lai, K., Rao, R. and Rosenblitt, D. (1986): Semi-structured Messages are Surprisingly Useful for Computer-Supported Coordination. InProceedings of conference on CSCW'86, Austin, Texas, 1986, pp. 102–114.
Malone T.W., Lai K. and Fry C. (1992): Experiments with Oval: A Radically Tailorable Tool for Cooperative Work. InProceedings of CSCW'92: ACM 1992 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, October 31 to November 4, 1992, Toronto, Canada, eds. Jon Turner and Robert Kraut. New York: ACM Press, pp. 289–297.
Medina-Mora, R., Winograd, T., Flores, R. and Flores, F. (1992): The Action Workflow Approach to Workflow Management Technology. InProceedings of the conference on CSCW'92, Toronto, Canada. November, 1992, pp. 281–288.
Patterson, J.F. (1991): Comparing the Programming demands of Single-User and Multi-User applications.User Interface Software and Technology (UIST), November 11–13, pp. 87–95.
Patterson, J.F., Hill, R.D., Rohall, S.L. and Meeks, W.S. (1990): Rendez vous: An architecture for synchronous multi-user applications. InProceedings of the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work October 7–10, Los Angeles, California, 1990. New York: ACM Press, pp. 317–328.
Rodden, T. and Blair, G.S. (1991): CSCW and Distributed Systems: The Problem of Control. In eds. L. Bannon, M. Robinson and K. Schmidt ECSCW '91. Proceedings of the Second European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publisher.
Rodden T., Mariani, J. and Blair G. (1992): Supporting Cooperative Applications. Computer Supported Cooperative Work(CSCW) An International Journal, vol. 1, no. 1.
Rozier, M., Abrossimov, V., Armand, F., Boule, B., Gien, M., Guillemont, M., Herrman, F., Kaiser, C., Langlois, S., Leonard, P. Neuhauser, W. (1990):Overview of the CHORUS Distributed Operating System, CS/TR-90-25, Chorus Systems. April 15.
Rudebusch, T.D. (1991): Supporting Interactions within Distributed Teams. InInternational Workshop on CSCW, April 9–11, 1991, pp. 17–33.
Schmidt, K. (1991): Riding a Tiger, or Computer Supported Cooperative Work. In L. Bannon, M. Robinson and K. Schmidt.ECSCW '91. Proceedings of the Second European Conference on COmputer-Supported Cooperative Work, Dordrecht: eds. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Shapiro, M. (1986): Structure and encapsulation in distributed systems: The proxy principle. In6th International Conference on Distributed Computer Systems, May, 1986, pp. 198–204.
Suchman, L.A. (1983): Office Procedures as Practical Action: Models of Work and System Design:ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 320–328.
Smith G. and Rodden T. (1993): Using an Access model to configure multi-user interfaces. InProceedings of COOCS'93 ACM International Conference on Organisational Computing Systems, San Jose, October 1993. New York: ACM Press.
Trevor J., Rodden T. and Mariani J. (1994): The Use of Adapters to Support Cooperative Sharing. InProceedings of CSCW'94, 22–26 October 1994, North Carolina. New York: ACM Press, pp. 219–231.
Trevor J. (1995):Infrastructure Support for CSCW. Ph.D. thesis, February 1995. Computing Department, Lancaster University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Trevor, J., Rodden, T. & Blair, G. Cola: A lightweight platform for CSCW. Comput Supported Coop Work 3, 197–224 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00773447
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00773447